Session Title

A Neglected Empire: Bulgaria between the Late Twelfth and Late Fourteenth Century I: Shaping, Defining, and Reshaping an Empire

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Univ. of Florida; Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Organizer Name

Florin Curta, Mildred Budny

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Florida, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Presider Name

Florin Curta

Paper Title 1

Sources and Patterns of State Identity of the Bulgarian Empire under the Assenids (1183–1396)

Presenter 1 Name

Dmitry I. Polyviannyy

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Ivanovo State Univ.

Paper Title 2

Between Past Glory and Imperial Destiny: The Ideological Use of the Past and of the Imperial Idea in Thirteenth-Century Bulgaria

Presenter 2 Name

Francesco Dall'Aglio

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, Napoli

Paper Title 3

The Second Bulgarian Empire and the Mediterranean

Presenter 3 Name

Elisaveta Todorova

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Cincinnati

Start Date

10-5-2014 10:00 AM

Session Location

Schneider 1130

Description

One of the most neglected European polities of the High and Late Middle Ages is the so-called "Second Bulgarian Empire" (1186–1396). Its history is moreover connected to the rise of Cuman power in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, the medieval kingdom of Hungary, medieval Serbia, and the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Pope Innocent III wrote several times to Johannitsa Kaloyanes, the second ruler of the Empire. John Asen II won a great victory at Klokotnitsa against the Despotate of Epirus, thus enabling the rise of the Nicaean Empire, as well as the subsequent restoration of the Byzantine Empire in 1261. The lavishly decorated Tetraevangelion of Emperor John Alexander, now in the British Library, is perhaps the best known "icon" of the extraordinary cultural development which occurred in 14th-century Bulgaria.

Our pair of sessions on "A Neglected Empire" (I and II) proposes to examine this “exotic” subject, little-known among Western medievalists, of the history of Southeastern Europe between the late 12th and the late 14th centuries. Our goal is to showcase recent research in various fields and multiple centers on the legal history of the Empire, the relations between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity in the political and cultural achievement of medieval Bulgaria, manuscript transmission, and fashions combining Western and Byzantine elements (revealed primarily through archaeological finds in medieval cemeteries in Silistra). Our explorations seek to shed new light on this “neglected empire” of medieval Europe.

Session I in the pair sets the stage by considering the issues involved, both in history and in historiography, in the efforts to define, shape, and redefine this "Second" Empire. Our speakers assess various forms of evidence and interpretations regarding this process.

Mildred Budny

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May 10th, 10:00 AM

A Neglected Empire: Bulgaria between the Late Twelfth and Late Fourteenth Century I: Shaping, Defining, and Reshaping an Empire

Schneider 1130

One of the most neglected European polities of the High and Late Middle Ages is the so-called "Second Bulgarian Empire" (1186–1396). Its history is moreover connected to the rise of Cuman power in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, the medieval kingdom of Hungary, medieval Serbia, and the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Pope Innocent III wrote several times to Johannitsa Kaloyanes, the second ruler of the Empire. John Asen II won a great victory at Klokotnitsa against the Despotate of Epirus, thus enabling the rise of the Nicaean Empire, as well as the subsequent restoration of the Byzantine Empire in 1261. The lavishly decorated Tetraevangelion of Emperor John Alexander, now in the British Library, is perhaps the best known "icon" of the extraordinary cultural development which occurred in 14th-century Bulgaria.

Our pair of sessions on "A Neglected Empire" (I and II) proposes to examine this “exotic” subject, little-known among Western medievalists, of the history of Southeastern Europe between the late 12th and the late 14th centuries. Our goal is to showcase recent research in various fields and multiple centers on the legal history of the Empire, the relations between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity in the political and cultural achievement of medieval Bulgaria, manuscript transmission, and fashions combining Western and Byzantine elements (revealed primarily through archaeological finds in medieval cemeteries in Silistra). Our explorations seek to shed new light on this “neglected empire” of medieval Europe.

Session I in the pair sets the stage by considering the issues involved, both in history and in historiography, in the efforts to define, shape, and redefine this "Second" Empire. Our speakers assess various forms of evidence and interpretations regarding this process.